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The Birth of the Obesity Clinic: Confessions of the Flesh, Biopedagogies and Physical Culture.
- Source :
-
Sociology of Sport Journal . Jun2012, Vol. 29 Issue 2, p227-253. 27p. - Publication Year :
- 2012
-
Abstract
- The recent construction of a so-called "obesity epidemic" has been fueled by epidemiologically-based studies recuperated by the media and suggestions of the rapid acceleration of obesity rates in the Western world. Studies linking obesity to ill-health have also exploded and greatly impacted our "physical" culture. In this article, I present a series of postcards to summarize the dominant obesity discourse and document the rhetorical terrain of the impending epidemic. I also offer counter-postcards to dispute the postcards' objective postulations and contextualize the birth of what I call the "Obesity Clinic." I then characterize this polymorphous clinic as an apparatus of capture sustained by biomedicalization, bioeconomics, and biocultural discourses and speak to its regulation and abjection of unruly (fat) bodies. I conclude with a few reflections about the territorializing nature of the Obesity Clinic as well as what it means for individuals and, more generally, for physical culture and its study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 07411235
- Volume :
- 29
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Sociology of Sport Journal
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 77922752
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.29.2.227